Giant Thief by David Tallerman

Even the wicked can’t rest when a vicious warlord and the force of enslaved giants he commands invade their homeland. Damasco might get away in one piece, but he’s going to need help.

Big time.

I’ve been reading a lot of books on thieves lately and each author manage to bring something different with their creation. Giant Thief is a fun and humorous take on this trend, and on many ways it succeeds. In this book we have a thief who has the charisma to charm his way out of any situation, and there are plenty of scenes where Easie Damasco uses his wit to weasel his way out of the direst confrontations. However its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness for me. At no point I felt that Easie is in any danger because I know that he will always get out of him. In fact he made it through the story pretty much unharmed.

Another weak point is that the story can be considered as one long chase sequence and after a while you just get tired of all the running. Since most of the book is filled with action and running, very little space is left for world building. Due to this, the world just failed to make an impression on me. The setting feels very much like a generic version of a medieval fantasy land with the usual nobles and peasants that inhabit it. For an imprint that is known for its genre-bending stories, Giant Thief feels a little too linear and ordinary.

As for the characters, I never liked Easie as the protagonist but maybe that’s the point. He is a typical selfish egotistical thief who has tremendous confidence in himself and the only person he cares about is himself. There is nothing wrong with that but I just find it harder to get into a story when I can’t emphasise with the lead.

There are a few other important characters in the book but they too failed to make an impact on me. Moaradrid is supposed to be the villain of the story but at no point was the reader made clear on his motivation for his actions and we just have to trust that he is the bad guy. Marina Estrada, the mayor of Muena Palaiya is a fierce woman and the source of her town’s strength against the invasion. Here’s an interesting character that I wanted to get into but feel that the part wasn’t as fleshed out as I hoped.

I think one thing that all readers would agree on is how adorable the stolen giant Saltlick is. Most of the time the giant just bumbles along and acts as the butt end of the jokes. As the story goes on we realise that he may not be as dumb as we think and that there is real intelligence behind those dopey eyes. Saltlick may seem simple but at least he knows what his values are and what he needs to do to keep them intact. For me, Saltlick is the real undeniable hero of the book. It would be a shame if he doesn’t feature in the sequel book titled Crown Thief.

Even though I didn’t enjoy the protagonist that much, I still had a good time reading the book. Giant Thiefis one of those books that is a bit of a laugh and is interesting enough to keep your turning the pages. It is a fun adventure that you can relax and escape to during your downtime.